Of the many issues brought to the table at the Slow Food joint Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre event this week in Turin, Italy, one of the most pressing is land-grabbing.

It is understood the agricultural division of the $163 billion Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has been sniffing around Australian agricultural land recently and has had discussions in Australia with landholders such as PrimeAg.

Investment advisors point to current rise in wheat prices as one more reason to invest in farmland...

Last week, the Land Matrix "land grab" database was released. On paper, they have a strong methodology and strict criteria about projects to be included. In practice, they seem to violate their own rules, at least when it comes to Chinese "projects" in Africa.

A policy paper will next week be presented to the annual World Bank conference on land and poverty in Washington DC in the United States, which focuses on the confrontation between peasant producers and investors in the Mozambican province of Zambezia.

Lao and Chinese businesses this week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for investment in organic farming in Laos, at a cost of about US$5 million.

The likelihood of Ethiopia facing stiff competition from Tanzania and Uganda in attracting investment from Indian agri-businesses reared its head during a visit from a 35 member delegation last week.

The Pan African Parliament (PAP) held a meeting of parliamentarians from across the continent last week to discuss an appropriate African response to resource grabs

Last week, China's largest farming company, Heilongjiang Beidahuang Nongken Group, inked a joint venture with Argentina's Cresud SA to buy land and farm soybeans.

These ‘food pirates’ come with bags full of foreign direct investment and are moving swiftly where land is available, investing in crops that can be shipped back home.

Developed nations attempt to secure supplies of food and biofuels to mitigate the impacts of climate change on the food and energy security of their populations, Khadija Sharife writes in this week’s Pambazuka News

International farmland-investment standards of the kind being worked upon are much needed. But agricultural agencies such as the FAO are not equipped to establish good property-rights regimes in the developing world, writes the Globe and Mail

Hostility to foreign investment in a sensitive border area has forced the Turkish government to shelve plans to turn a minefield along its frontier with Syria into organic farmland.

The problem of food security poses a real threat to global stability. Meeting in Italy last weekend, agriculture ministers of the G8 industrialized countries recognized the extent of the problem. They pledged to continue fighting hunger. But beyond calling for increased public and private investment in agriculture, the final communiqué of the ministerial meeting was short on fresh proposals.

The global food shortage coupled with vast tracts of surplus arable land in Africa made the continent the world's greatest farming opportunity, Avril Stassen, an investment adviser for Agri-Vie's $100 million (R957 million) agribusiness private equity fund, said last week.

The Agribusiness Leadership Meeting for Agricultural Transformation in Ihemi Cluster was held in Iringa last week.

Despite all the hype around Chinese investment in the Australian dairy sector, one Chinese investor who bought a dairy farm five years ago has lost money and will not buy again.

Global private equity firm KKR has returned to China’s agriculture industry this week with a $400 million deal for a minority stake in Fujian Sunner Development, a vertically integrated chicken meat producer.

Earlier this week, the Overseas Investment Office said it did not know how much farmland was owned by foreigners. Yesterday it told Prime Minister Key it believed the amount is 1 to 2 per cent.

Responding to strong demand, asset management firm Land Commodities has plans to launch its first retail farmland fund. The company says it receives around 10 to 20 enquiries from private investors each week.

Saudi businessman Saleh Kamel announced last week that the Sudanese government agreed to give his country two million acres [809 371 hectares] of farmland for a project that will allow the Arab Gulf state to ensure a steady food supply.

Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd., Malaysia’s biggest plantation operator, with a landbank of 880,000 ha, aims to file documents this week for the nation’s biggest initial share sale in more than a year

The Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture plans to conduct a media tour accompanied by officials next week in Gambela to increase public awareness surrounding land grabbing issues.

A new report published this week claims farmers in Africa are being driven off their traditional lands to make way for vast new industrial farming projects backed by European hedge funds seeking profits and foreign countries looking for cheap food.

The Brazilian government now prohibits non-Brazilians from buying controlling shares of companies that own vast tracts of territory in the country, Attorney General Luiz Inacio Adams said this week.

Business leaders and even top government officials have been left surprised by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s announcement last week that the country would impose a two-year moratorium on the clearing of natural forests, which may affect various foreign investment projects.

Undeterred by recent debates, a Bahrain scouting mission left for a week-long trip to the Philippines and Thailand yesterday, where it hopes to secure fruit and vegetable plantations.

Several Arab investors visited this city last week in a mission to look for potential agriculture business in Mindanao where they can pour their investments.

The Federal Minister of Investment in Pakistan, Waqar Ahmed Khan, said this week that the government plans to sell or lease 1 million acres of farmland to foreign investors, primarily from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Although the news has yet to gain much coverage, if carried out it could punctuate growing unrest and frustration, given Pakistan’s limited amount of arable land and population of more than 170 million.

A Kuwaiti delegation last week met with the Myanmar cabinet and industry officials to discuss investment in the agricultural sector.